1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an indexing machine used in the manufacture of bakery products.
2. Background Discussion
As illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,825, it is conventional for dough balls or packets aligned in rows to be advanced incrementally in a step-wise fashion row by row along an assembly line. These packets are formed by conventional divider apparatus which cuts up a mass of dough into individual balls or packets that are fed to a Ferris-wheel-type conveyor along the assembly line. The Ferris-wheel type conveyor has a series of rows of cups into which the individual packets are deposited.
During a portion of the travel of these dough packets along the assembly line, they are dusted with flour and slide along an inclined table into the individual cups of the Ferris-wheel type conveyor. For example, a row of six dough balls or packets slide down the table and into the individual cups of the Ferris-wheel-like conveyor. There are six cups aligned in a row and positioned to receive the individual dough packets as they slide off the end of the table. The problem is that as the dough packets slide along the incline table, they do not reach the end of the table at precisely the same time.